Remember the Congressmen who last year stood in line for opportunities to snidely gripe about Detroit's bigwigs traveling to D.C. on private jets?Remember last month's rejection of the Pentagon's request for more F-22 fighters? ("We can't afford it," they said.)
Well, from Roll Call, here's a brief story about planes that Congress does like.
The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream 550 jet (price tag: about $65 million) as part of an ongoing upgrade of its passenger air service.
But the House Appropriations Committee, at its own initiative, added to the 2010 Defense appropriations bill another $132 million for two more airplanes and specified that they be assigned to the D.C.-area units that carry Members of Congress, military brass and top government officials.
Because the Appropriations Committee viewed the additional aircraft as an expansion of an existing Defense Department program, it did not treat the money for two more planes as an earmark, and the legislation does not disclose which Member had requested the additional money...
